The Making of Windigo

LIGHTING

As you can see, I had access to a lot of gear, but budget constraints also meant the crew would be relatively small, and to my mind, it doesn’t do a lot of good to have too much equipment if you don’t have the proper personnel to safely and effectively set it up.  Technology has led me to an approach that would not have been possible a few years back when lighting instruments were not as efficient and cameras not so sensitive.  I decided I would only use lights that could plug into a 20 amp household circuit, (what some affectionately call an “Orange Stinger Job”).

Of course, this would be no sweat on a small set or for a documentary type of production, but as previously mentioned, this shoot called for a number of large night exteriors in the forest.  Rather than a dense pine forest where you could just light one row of trees, this is the type of winter forest that had enumerable barren tree trunks visible for hundreds of yards in any direction.  Naturally, the Director wanted to look in lots of different directions with multiple cameras requiring very little relighting between setups, so it was a somewhat tall order.

My answer was to bring in the “Big Guns”…no not 24K HMIs, but much more manageable HMIs that can run off a single 20 amp circuit.  I sourced two 1.8Ks from my friends at the allied manufacturing companies DADCO and Sunray.  It is truly amazing how much single source brute light output you can get out of one of their faceted reflector PARs.

I put these above the tree line on a 36’ sizer lift, the largest they had that was equipped with 4-wheel drive to plow through the mud and snow to get into tough spots. The lights were set side-by-side and splayed out to make for a wider coverage pattern.  Then to fine tune things a bit I added one or two K 5600 1.6K Alphas. They don’t have comparable lumen output, but their fresnel lenses allow them to be dialed in to get the light precisely where I needed it.  The combination of these units made for fast set ups and quick adjustments.

Much as LED manufacturers might like to claim, there is still no substitute for the HMI when you need a single source with lots of output and a long throw. Maybe someday, but not yet.  I also made good use of the K 5600 Alphas once we got to the set.  Their dimmable ballasts made for an easily controllable output and the sharp nature of the light created a very believable sun source coming through windows and “exterior” doors, which could be precisely cut and was also good as projecting patterns coming through the shears.

Another light that played in almost every set-up in the movie was the much loved Maxi light from DMG Lumière, now a Rosco company.  It creates a large soft source that is color variable, and with a draw of only 520W, it is very stingy with power.  It is bright enough to use as daylight fill, reducing shadow in full sun and it also helped to extend our shooting day when we were losing the light, with quick color adjustments to match the setting sun.

I don’t like to have too many sources working a night exterior, especially when it is a natural setting with no real justification other than moon light.  So I usually set up one big source, which I try to keep primarily as a back edge.  Opposed to this, I like to set up a single large soft fill.  This used to be one or two Maxi-brutes bouncing into a 12’x12’ Griff, which takes a lot of resources in terms of set-up and power consumption, not to mention that it is extremely hard to move.  However, that was before I discovered the DMG Lumiére Maxi.

The Maxi is easily transportable in a soft over-the-shoulder carrying case, but then folds open to create a large 3’x4’ soft panel.  The output is great enough to put through a large muslin or silk giving me the desired large soft source for night exteriors which is easily moveable and color variable.  I like to keep my two opposing night time sources a little different color, which was quite easy in this case; I just balanced the camera and the Maxi to 4500 Kelvin, and let the HMIs play as full daylight balance avoiding the need for gels and the ensuing grippage.

This was the basic set up for some pretty large night exteriors.  Of course, a few small lights were added here and there, and to help with a closeup where the HMI on the lift might not be at the best angle for a closeup, we would simply flag the big lights off the talent and bring in a Zylight F200 closer at a more suitable angle.  The F200 is a daylight balanced, fully dimmable fresnel which can be battery powered to make it especially quick to deploy.

Another cheat to my two source night exterior set up is the BB&S Flyer light which I like to think of as a China Ball on steroids.  It is also color variable, dimmable, and can be powered off a battery.  Since it is light weight enough to “fly” on the end of a boom pole, it gave us the ability to follow a runner through the forest with a constant level of fill.

Like the K 5600 Alpha HMIs, the soft color variable LED lights were also very useful on the “stage”, (which consisted of sets for a four room house constructed inside a barn).  Since there were a lot of practical light sources on the sets including kerosene lamps, I decided to dig out my small tungsten lights which have been resting in retirement in my garage for the last few years.  Much as I love the new lighting technology, it was a joy to once again use my Minis, Tweenies, and tungsten Dedolights.  They played really nicely along with the Maxi, warmed up and dimmed way down through a 6’x6’ muslin.  The extremely thin profile of the Maxi allowed it to fit into relatively tight spaces.

Speaking of thin profiles, it is hard to get thinner than Aladdin’s Fabric-Lite from Zylight, which is made of over 1,200 individual LEDs mounted on a flexible 3’x3’ backing.  It is completely flexible, battery operated, dimmable, with variable color between 2900 to 6200K.   I deployed it in many situations, but found it most useful for car interiors.  In a driving shot without the benefit of a proper process trailer, I had to look through the front window of a minivan and hide a light in order to bring the passenger in the heavily tinted rear seat up to the level of the driver and front passenger.  I simply mounted the Fabric-Lite inside, on the edge of frame up against the window, then brought it up to taste.  Being made up of so many small light sources helps create a natural looking wash that you can get pretty close to an Actor without looking lit.

There’s one more light that I don’t want to forget to mention; a fully immersible waterproof LED from Light & Motion known as the Stella.  Having a short scene with an actor sloshing around at the bottom of a well is the reason I sought it out.  When Actors are in the water, I don’t like to have any AC sources around the set, so I used one Stella underwater, and another from the top as my key light.  I also found these lights useful in many other situations throughout the production.  They are fully dimmable and run all day off of an internal battery, so it was really quick to sneak them into many a setup.  The quality of the light is also uniquely clean and sharp, which of course, can be softened with the available diffusion attachments.  I can’t say enough good things about these little power houses.

Another little trick employed on this scene was the use of an aquarium for easy water level, (or even slightly underwater,) POVs.  An aquarium works just as well to keep the water out as it does to keep it in.  So, you simply drop the camera in and weigh it down to get the proper water level in your frame, shoot through one side, and then operate steering the aquarium as it floats on the surface.

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The Making of “1000 to 1”

It was lighting, however, that probably presented the biggest challenge on “1000 to 1,” especially with so much of the action taking place in large basketball arenas. I was really worried when I first saw their shiny new 3,000 seat gym at the Jaeger Center. As basketball stadiums go, it’s a beautiful, state of the art, brightly lit facility that was designed for ESPN to rollup and cover the action. There was going to be no trouble getting an exposure, even for the high speed, and narrow shuttle angle shots I was planning. It looked like what it was supposed to look like, a modern basketball gym, but it would have been extremely difficult to create the kind of high contrast dramatic mood lighting I had in mind in this environment.
I was relieved to find out on our scout that they had another older gym that was set to be demolished but was still standing. It was dripping with old fashion Hoops charm and looked like it came right out of the movie “Hoosiers.” Since much of our story actually took place during practice sessions, we decided the older gym would be the set for practice scenes, and the newer, modern gym would be great for the big final game, (which is where the real events took place.) Our “practice” gym was ringed by beautiful, twenty foot high arched windows, but the overhead mercury vapor lights were nothing short of screaming orange ugly and needed to be kept off. However, trying to use the daylight, constantly changing with the rotation of the earth and frequent weather systems coming in and out made this impractical without a substantial light available to pump through the windows to mimic the sun when it went away.

K5600 came to the rescue with their formidable 18K Alpha. Our Gaffer, Sean Murray can explain better than I how well suited this light was for our purposes, “The compact size and light weight made the Alpha 18K a particular joy for us to work with. This light had all the power that I would expect from an 18K and then some. But usually an 18K comes along with a lot of downsides that a larger Electric Crew just deals with. Setting up a typical 18K can be a bit of an event. With the lightweight Alpha 18K, even a small crew can head up the light quickly and safely. Rigging the Alpha into an aerial work platform or scissors lift was quick, easy, and safe. The light weight helped us avoid overloading the platform, and the slim profile of the unit meant that it didn’t intrude into the operator’s space in the basket, or extend far out beyond the safety rail, making it an ease to operate.” The design of these lights makes it possible to use such a powerful unit, even with a relatively small crew. We certainly would not have been able to make our schedule, or gotten the look were able to achieve without the 18K pouring in the windows in addition to the Alpha 4Ks, and Jokers efficiently doing the work inside.
 
When we got to the newer gym, it was well lit by the standards of modern basketball arenas, but it would be near impossible to get decent modeling. Besides being flat overhead lighting, the color temperature was troublesome, and the windows were not rightly positioned in this case to pump light through. There were no resources available to change out the hundreds of fluorescent tubes or turn them off and re-light with some other type of lights, so I opted to leave them on, green as they were, and get my modeling via the same “Big Guns”, (K5600 Alpha 18K and 4K.) I corrected them to fluorescent by adding Rosco Full Plus Green #244 and it worked like a charm. Our DIT, (and Northern California DCS President,) Simon Sommerfeld ran our tests through REDcine to make sure we could effectively take the green cast out in post and it seemed to work quite well. I could put the 18K all the way down at one end of the gym, bottom it with a shelf of staggered double nets, and keep it even, to follow the action all the way down to the other side of the court. A little Plus Green on my Daylight balanced Litepanels Hilios was all I needed for lights floating on the floor for fill and close-ups.

Another practical set featuring “Mean Green” fluorescents was the real training room where they rushed Cory Weissman right after he had his massive stroke. This room had a low ceiling, impossible to keep out of the frame, and the fluorescents had somewhat unusual bases which would have been difficult to change out. Luckily they were recessed, so I was able to gel them with squares of Rosco #247 Minus Green which converted them to daylight and allowed me to light the room with my Jokers. To our eyes on the set these looked an alarming weird shade of purple, but again, after looking at tests, it worked just fine on camera.
The Lightpanels Hilio, which is fairly light weight and draws only 115 watts also came in handy for a couple of short car interior scenes. We towed the picture car with a U-haul trailer and powered two Hilios off a small inverter. The Hilios have plenty of output which allowed us to soften them with Rosco 250 Diffusion, and add Rosco #248, Half Minus Green to compensate for the green tint inherent in the windshield; (which is a challenge with many modern, energy efficient cars these days).

Inside the car, a Litepanels 1×1 Bicolor running off an Anton Bauer camera battery provided plenty of exposure from the fill side, even on the very sunny day we shot. It always amazes me how close to the subject you can sneak a Lightpanels 1×1 when fighting a too bright background as in a daylight car interior. It can be right off camera, inches from the talent, but I suppose because of the many small source LEDs, it doesn’t give away your lighting, and it doesn’t torture the Actor with a hot light. All in all this was a fast, simple rig which fit the budget and shooting style of this production. I love my 1x1s and sneak them in constantly; they’re light weight, use very little power, are dimmable, color selectable, and stay cool to the touch.

Litepanels also loaned me one of their new “Inca”, (denotes Incandescent), units; this one was about the size and output of a 1K Baby-Baby, but only draws a little over 100 watts, and it stays cool to the touch; gotta love these new LEDs.
Finally, I would like to discuss camera support and power. I tend to use a JibArm a lot; mine is a Frankenstein of a contraption customized from many manufacturers’ parts including a 9 ft arm and underslung Weaver Steadman TriAxis head. For more traditional camera support, I was lucky to have my favorite fluid head, the O’Connor 2575, which is hard to beat for smooth solid dependability with a wide range of camera configurations; no matter how much paraphernalia you hang on the camera.

I was spoiled to also have a dolly and Steadicam standing by. For camera and very portable lighting needs I count on Anton Bauer, Hytron 140s for long run times when weight is not an issue, and we used their super efficient Dionic HC onboards for handheld and Steadicam.

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The Making of “Broken Links”

Lighting

Besides a short crew and practical locations, another caveat of this production was that it would be lit only with units that could plug into a household circuit; no generator. Luckily, great strides are now taking place in the development of low wattage lighting, and this movie gave me the opportunity to try several new technologies.

The need for small, highly controllable units made me think right away of my friend Dedo Weigert’s wonderful little tungsten lighting instruments we know as dedolights. However, when I visited their showroom, I was blown away at the wide breadth of their product line. They’ve gone way beyond their little tungsten units, and now feature a full line of LEDs, as well as HMIs. Many of their new lights still take advantage of Dedo’s patented “double aspheric” lens technology. This is what gives their lights such tremendous focusing ability and light output comparable to much larger units.

I became particularly fond of their small LEDs, (20, 40, and 90watt), which are similar in size to their classic tungsten units, but with greater output even at the lower wattages. They are also fully dimmable and available as a Bi-color. A distinctive yellow focusing band sets them apart and you could find them mounted all over our set as rim lights or specials precisely highlighting elements in the background.

We were also fortunate to get our hands on a couple of their HMIs. A nice feature of these units is that they can be operated as either 400watt or 575watt daylight from the same ballast without changing the globe, and again offer all the great precision light control Dedo is famous for. In addition, we carried a modular projection attachment capable of creating razor sharp edges and shadow patterns; think Source4 on steroids. Dedo was also kind enough to provide a 400/575watt PAR which we used as a large source through their 5’ diameter “Dedoflex Octodome”. With one of our stars in her 80’s, and shooting in 4K, it helped to keep our closeup lighting on the soft side, and this was just the ticket.

Our “Big Gun” was only a 500watt fixture, but it did the trick. It was provided by a new company called Red Scorpion LEDs, designed from the ground up by Cinematographer and former Gaffer Marcelo Colacilli, with an emphasis on giving maximum output per watt that can still be plugged into a household circuit. They can reasonably be thought of as a replacement for an HMI PAR with their biggest unit, a 1K, being roughly equivalent to a 4K HMI PAR. The 500watt unit that we had seemed to exceed what I would expect from a 2.5K HMI, and proved plenty big enough for our purposes.

We also found the smaller 200watt fixture to be quite handy, and used them both primarily as daylight fill. I have found that the array of multiple LEDs allows them to be snuck in closer with little or no diffusion, compared to the single hot source of an HMI globe. It’s easier on the actor’s eyes, and you don’t see a hot spot giving away your source.

As with most LEDs, the challenge with the Red Scorpion’s lights is color fidelity. Given the design emphasis on output over color rendition, this is admittedly more of an issue with their units. Luckily, another manufacturer I’m friendly with, Rosco, had recently approached me about testing a line of gels specifically designed to offer an array of options to deal with LED lighting. The new Rosco line is known as “OPTI-FLECS” and comes as semi-rigid reusable filters in 21 varieties of standard colors and diffusions.

A gel can only absorb color, so if a portion of the color spectrum is missing, there is no gel that can create it. This is why users of lesser quality LEDs are often disappointed when they try to use gels to fix their lights. However, gels can be very effective in helping to control spikes in the spectrum, which is the issue with Red Scorpion LEDs, so OPTI-FLECS was the perfect solution. During our preproduction camera and lighting tests, we matched a variety of filters to different types of LED lights. We found a couple of the “Rouge” gels worked really well on the Red Scorpions to give nice skin tones for our daylight fill, one with frost and the other with just the color correction.

Shooting in practical locations with only smaller lights also created a challenge in keeping the windows from blowing out. Again, Rosco came to the rescue by providing their “Cinescreen”. I’ve never been a fan of affixing ND gel directly onto window glass; it is very time consuming, imperfections are easily seen, and when the light changes, there is no quick fix. However, Cinescreen is a cloth based netting or scrim material, that can quickly be stretched on the outside of the window, and changed as necessary. It knocks out about two stops with the added bonus that it is re-usable.

The rest of our lighting was filled out nicely with some innovative products from a company called BBS. Their “Flyer” system is a lightweight, dimmable Bi-Color LED designed to easily and quickly place soft overhead light where it’s needed. The fixture and soft box diffusor are light weight enough that they can be extended on a common K-Tek boom pole that comes with the kit. The unit can easily be rigged on a C-stand creating a fast and safe alternative to a full menace arm rig. At only 2 lbs., and able to run off a camera battery attached to the included belt pack, it also makes a great traveling light to float with a moving camera. This was the perfect rig for this movie, and we found ourselves using it on almost every setup.  We even used it to light our crew photo.

BBS also provided us one of their new remote phosphor lights known as the “Area 48”. Remote Phosphor is a type of LED technology that uses higher output “super blue” LEDs then matches a particular phosphor coating to the wavelength of light emitted to achieve the desired color temperature. The coatings are integrated into a lens which looks like a hard gel, and can be swapped out to achieve varying color temperatures including 5600K daylight, 3200K, or Chroma Green, Chroma Blue, etc.. The results tend to have much better color rendition, and create a very soft source with a tremendous output per watt. The Area 48 uses only 122Watts of power, is fully dimmable, and can also run off of camera batteries. This versatile unit also saw a lot of use on our movie.